Coal seam gas protesters prepared for second Bentley blockade

The NSW Supreme Court last week ruled that the State Government had acted outside of its powers in suspending mining company Metgasco's licence to drill for gas in Bentley, between Lismore and Casino.

Thousands of protesters camped at the site last May until the Minister for Resources and Energy, Anthony Roberts, cancelled Metgasco's exploration licence on the grounds it had failed to undertake genuine and effective community consultation.

However, Justice Richard Button ruled that was not an adequate reason to suspend the licence.

Anti-coal seam gas campaigner and lawyer Aiden Ricketts said the decision was not based on the merits of coal seam gas mining.

"They're just looking at the process the government used," he said.

"The main thing that concerns us is the court found that you couldn't suspend an operation of this kind purely on the basis of community consultation. You need to reveal an existing environmental breach."

Mr Ricketts said if the government waited for an environmental breach, the damage would have already been done.

"The problem with environmental conditions is you need to wait until the drilling has happened and there's already an environmental impact, by which case it's already a bit too late," he said.

He called for legislation to be changed to give the State Government more power over the industry.

"The legislation appears to be flawed because it doesn't give the government sufficient control of the industry to have a circuit breaker available to it in the kind of extraordinary situation we saw at Bentley," Mr Ricketts said.

"The government has legislative power to change the legislation and start fixing this situation for good and I would tend to think that would be a safer path for them.

"The thing about changing legislation, particularly at the State level, is it's not then capable of being subjected to this kind of judicial review and litigation."

Louise Somerville, from the anti-coal seam gas group the Knitting Nannas, said protesters were prepared for a second Bentley blockade but didn't expect to have to head to the site any time soon.

"What we are after is a much bigger take on the whole scenario," she said.

"One well is not the focus.

"We would like to have close consultation with our local and federal representatives who have already come out and said they don't want this industry in our region.

"We won't lay down and allow it.

"Everyone is 100 per cent committed.

"But we believe an adult discussion is what is needed, particularly between our community and the state and federal government because we just won't allow this to happen.

"It would be very foolish for Metgasco to even consider returning to Bentley."